Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology – Miscellaneous
Patent
1991-02-12
1992-12-15
Warden, Robert J.
Chemistry: molecular biology and microbiology
Miscellaneous
4253, 4300, 4DIG12, 71 12, 71 13, 435287, 435311, B01J 800
Patent
active
051716909
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a composting device for toilet and kitchen waste, which device is to be used in connection with a toilet. In normal use, the toilet and kitchen waste is removed from the device after it has been composted into soil.
In composting toilets, it is a common practice to add additives to the waste contained in a one-part composting container in connection with the filling of the container. These additives make the composting more rapid and alleviate the smell problem. The compost is usually aerated only at the top, and the surplus liquid remaining after the aeration is discharged directly into the surroundings through small openings formed in the bottom or at the side of the bottom or through a collector pipe. When the composting device is emptied, waste materials composted to different degrees are mixed with each other, whereby fresh, smelling waste is also removed from the container in connection with the emptying. The compost cannot be used as plant manure without intermediate storage.
There also exists a rotating composting device in which a cylindrical inner compost container is positioned within a cylindrical outer container. The compost container is divided into four sections in such a manner that waste materials composted to different degrees remain apart from each other. The composting device is positioned below the floor of the toilet room, and a vertical tube projects from it into the toilet room. The toilet seat is positioned at the end of the tube. In this composting device, the waste is aerated only from the top. Surplus liquid flows into the outer container through small openings provided in the bottom of the compost container, where from it is discharged through a discharge tube provided at the side of the container. Only the inner container rotates on a shaft positioned centrally in the container.
A common problem with the first-mentioned composting devices is that wastes of different degree of composting are mixed with each other in connection with the emptying and/or the composting process is postponed by means of additives so that it takes place after the emptying. The compost to be emptied smells and cannot be used as manure as such.
In the last-mentioned composting device, the composting of waste takes place slowly, as only the top layer of the compact waste material is aerated. Also, the waste is too dry as it does not get any extra humidity when the aeration air flows on the top of the waste layer into the liquid container and out therefrom. Due to the elongated vertical tube with the toilet seat at the top of it, the smell of the compost enters the toilet room as the natural aeration is not strong enough to suck the smell down along the rather long tube. The double container makes the composting device expensive and the container is difficult to empty from the side through a door provided in the double container wall. The compost material easily flows into a gap defined between the containers when the container is being emptied, which later on hampers the discharge of liquid.
A decisive improvement is achieved with respect to the above drawbacks by means of a device according to the invention.
In the device according to the invention, a rotating compost container is divided into four sections to keep apart compost materials of different degree of composting. After one section has been filled up, the waste contained therein is covered with a couple of buckets of soil or old compost, and the container is rotated to take a new container section into use. The compost container is positioned partly within the toilet room so that the toilet seat is positioned immediately or substantially immediately above the cover of the composting device. In this way, no vertical tube difficult to aerate is needed and, as a consequence, the smell of the compost will not enter the inner room when the lid of the toilet seat is opened.
In the compost container, the waste is aerated both from above and from below as the container is provided with a grate and a floor made of a filtering c
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McMahon Timothy M.
Warden Robert J.
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